Array Digital Infrastructure Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
November 6, 2026

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: TDS Telecom delivered a record 76,000 fiber service addresses in the quarter and added a record 17,000 fiber customers; its footprint now exceeds 2 million addresses, with fiber net adds up 50% year over year.
  • Negative Sentiment: TDS Telecom lowered its 2026 revenue and Adjusted EBITDA guidance, citing persistent legacy-business declines and higher operating costs. Capital expenditure guidance rose by about $100 million at the midpoint to approximately $750 million, partly to pull forward future fiber construction.
  • Positive Sentiment: TDS said it has nearly exhausted its $520 million share-repurchase authorization and approved an additional $250 million; it also acquired Granite State Communications, adding nearly 13,000 fully fibered addresses.
  • Neutral Sentiment: Array reported strong tower revenue growth: cash site rental revenue rose 20% year over year after adjusting for DISH and excluding T-Mobile interim-site revenue, and grew 7% excluding the T-Mobile MLA as well. However, Array expects 1,200–1,600 towers to become tenant-less as T-Mobile completes network integration, while its full-year outlook remained unchanged.
  • Neutral Sentiment: TDS withdrew its offer to acquire Array’s remaining publicly held shares after the parties could not agree on value and consideration; management said its immediate priority is to build both businesses independently.
AI Generated. May Contain Errors.
Earnings Conference Call
Array Digital Infrastructure Q3 2026
00:00 / 00:00

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Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us, and welcome to the TDS and Array third quarter 2026 operating results conference call. After today's prepared remarks, we will host a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please raise your hand. If you have dialed in to today's call, please press star nine to raise your hand and star six to unmute. I will now hand the conference over to John Toomey, Treasurer, Vice President, and Head of Corporate Relations. Please go ahead.

John Toomey
Treasurer, VP, and Head of Corporate Relations at TDS

Good morning, and thank you for joining us. The presentation we prepared to accompany our comments this morning can be found on the investor relations sections of the TDS and Array websites. With me today in offering prepared comments are, on behalf of TDS, Walter Carlson, President and CEO, Vicki Villacrez, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. On behalf of TDS Telecom, Ken Dixon, President and CEO of TDS Telecom, Chris Bothfeld, Vice President of Financial Analysis and Strategic Planning of TDS. On behalf of Array Digital Infrastructure, Anthony Carlson, President and CEO of Array. This call is being simultaneously webcast on the TDS and Array investor relations websites. Please see the websites for the slides referenced on this call, including non-GAAP reconciliations. TDS and Array filed their SEC Forms 8-K, including the press releases, earlier this morning.

John Toomey
Treasurer, VP, and Head of Corporate Relations at TDS

As shown on slide two, the information set forth in the presentation and discussed during this call contains statements about expected future events and financial results that are forward-looking and subject to risks and uncertainties. Please review the safe harbor paragraphs in our press releases and the full description of risk factors included in our SEC filings. I will now turn the call over to TDS President and CEO, Walter Carlson. Walter?

Walter Carlson
President and CEO at TDS

Thanks, John, and good morning, everyone. TDS made progress during the third quarter on our mission to transform the organization. Over the past several years, we have taken many strategic actions that position us well, both for today and the future. Those include exiting the wireless business, monetizing spectrum at attractive values, retaining tower assets that can benefit from future demand, investing in fiber without the burden of high leverage in a period of rising interest rates, and repurchasing shares at prices we believe are attractive. Today, I am pleased to share TDS and Array Digital Infrastructure's third quarter results, which reflect the progress we are making. TDS Telecom delivered record construction activity and strong fiber customer growth, but has more work to do to offset pressures on profitability. Array delivered strong revenue growth as it continues to optimize the portfolio.

Walter Carlson
President and CEO at TDS

Across both businesses, we remain confident in our strategy and the investments we are making to create long-term value. Turning to slide three and our 2026 enterprise priorities, our objectives remain clear. Grow and strengthen our fiber business, maximize the value of our tower portfolio, maintain disciplined capital allocation, and continue transforming our business for the future. As Ken Dixon and Chris Bothfeld will explain, TDS Telecom continues to expand its fiber footprint while increasing its focus on converting those addresses to customers. As Anthony Carlson will describe, Array is advancing its strategic priorities through increased tower co-locations and continued efforts to monetize its C-band spectrum. I do want to briefly comment on TDS's withdrawal of the previously announced offer to acquire the minority interest of Array in an all-stock transaction.

Walter Carlson
President and CEO at TDS

As we noted in our September 1st press release, we continue to believe there could be strategic benefits to such a combination. However, after extensive review on both sides, the two parties were unable to reach agreement on value and form of consideration. With that process behind us, TDS continues to be laser-focused on supporting both Array and TDS Telecom as they advance their respective strategic objectives and build shareholder value. I continue to be encouraged by the progress being made in both business units and by the work underway to strengthen our culture during this period of transformation. I would like to personally thank every associate across the enterprise for their continued commitment and contributions. I will now turn the call over to Vicki.

Vicki Villacrez
EVP and CFO at TDS

Thank you, Walter, and good morning, everyone. As Walter highlighted, our enterprise priorities are centered on creating long-term value, and our capital allocation is aligned to support them. First is fiber. TDS Telecom continues to advance its long-term goal of reaching 2.1 million marketable fiber service addresses, adding approximately 76,000 in the third quarter. TDS Telecom now has a footprint of over 2 million addresses, an increase of 8% over the prior year, and 63% of those addresses are served with fiber today. Delivering on this level of continued expansion requires intentional oversubscription, which drives pull-forward capital, but is necessary to fill our pipeline to mitigate for temporary construction delays, such as permitting or other factors. As we've noted previously, being first to market with fiber is a critical part of our investment thesis. It supports expected returns in the low to mid-teens in our fiber investments.

Vicki Villacrez
EVP and CFO at TDS

We continue to see attractive opportunities to be first to fiber, and our strong capital position provides us the flexibility to pursue these investments. We remain confident in our long-term growth and value they can create. Second, I am pleased to share that following the termination of TDS's offer to acquire Array, we were in the market and have now virtually exhausted all of our prior share repurchase authorization, or $520 million. Given recent share prices and our view of the company's intrinsic value, we viewed this investment as an excellent use of available capital. Further, in an effort to afford us future flexibility, the TDS board has approved an additional $250 million share repurchase authorization. This is an open authorization that is not time-bound and allows us to remain opportunistic as market and business conditions evolve.

Vicki Villacrez
EVP and CFO at TDS

Finally, in the quarter, we completed the acquisition of Granite State Communications, a tuck-in market in New Hampshire that brings nearly 13,000 fully fibered service addresses to the portfolio, strengthening our Northeast fiber cluster. Thank you, and now I will turn the call over to Ken Dixon to discuss TDS's fiber business.

Ken Dixon
President and CEO at TDS Telecom

Thank you, Vicki, and good morning, everyone. At TDS Telecom, we are transforming our business to be fiber-centric. Slide six shows our progress at the end of the third quarter. We now have over 2 million service addresses, and 63% of those are served by fiber. Another 19% are served by coax, meaning that 82% of our addresses can get gig speeds today. Our incumbent markets are now 56% fiber, and with the support of E-ACAM and our fiber deeper investments, we continue to drive copper out of our network. As shown on slide seven, we delivered approximately 76,000 marketable fiber service addresses in the third quarter, bringing us to approximately 181,000 for the first nine months of the year. This represents the best third quarter fiber address delivery in company history and demonstrates our continued momentum.

Ken Dixon
President and CEO at TDS Telecom

Being first to fiber and seizing the current opportunity are critical, which is why our fiber build plan is supported by historic levels of construction crews, and our E-ACAM activity reached its highest level since the program began. In the third quarter, we delivered 27,000 new ILEC fiber addresses and expect that number to increase in the fourth quarter. That momentum is driving our CapEx guidance for the year. Looking ahead, we plan to deliver another 25% of our E-ACAM addresses next year. With less construction competition in rural areas today, we are seizing the opportunity to retain crews and accelerate our investments. As a result, we have a large pipeline of addresses in various stages of construction and investment across many markets. This pipeline positions us well to meet our goals, both this year and long term.

Ken Dixon
President and CEO at TDS Telecom

In summary, our build teams are delivering at a record pace, giving us confidence in the construction plan and the opportunity ahead. Turning to sales. We ended the third quarter with approximately 17,000 fiber net adds, our highest quarterly result in company history, up approximately 50% year-over-year. We also saw improvement in our fiber churn when compared to last year's third quarter, which is typically the industry's highest quarter for churn. We are seeing the benefits of our new sales leadership and expanded capabilities. We have additional door-to-door vendors to attack the record open for sale opportunities to complement our existing teams. We have also increased capacity in our multi-dwelling space to accelerate sales for those units. In terms of customer acquisition, we have shifted a significant portion of volume toward the dot-com channel, which is our lowest cost of acquisition.

Ken Dixon
President and CEO at TDS Telecom

We are excited by the sales opportunities we see as we close out 2026 and move into 2027. In our cable markets, subscriber trends continue to stabilize during the third quarter. As you know, 22% of our cable addresses today are served with fiber. As we continue to become a more fiber-centric company, I'm pleased to share that we are beginning activities to convert another 30,000 coax addresses to fiber. Our operational transformation is centered on efficiency, improving the customer experience, and simplification. As I've noted before, we continue to make progress modernizing our systems and remain on track with our transformation roadmap, making it easier for customers to do business with us. Turning to slide eight. Our long-term goals reflect the scale and long-term value we expect to create through our fiber growth strategy.

Ken Dixon
President and CEO at TDS Telecom

We believe fiber is the superior broadband technology, not only for today, but well into the future. With the delivery of approximately 76,000 fiber addresses in the quarter, we now serve over 1.2 million fiber service addresses, representing 63% of our total footprint, and with 82% of addresses capable of gig speeds. We are building at a record pace, improving our execution, and steadily shifting the business toward fiber. We know there is more work ahead, but the progress we're making reinforces our confidence in our strategy and long-term value of the fiber-centric business we are creating. Before I turn it over to Chris, I want to comment briefly on our third quarter financial results. We are very bullish on our fiber growth future, but continue to see pressure on our legacy business. This is a driver for our updated guidance, which Chris will cover in more detail.

Ken Dixon
President and CEO at TDS Telecom

Thank you, and I will now turn the call over to Chris.

Chris Bothfeld
VP of Financial Analysis and Strategic Planning at TDS

Thanks, Ken. Turning to slide nine, the chart on the left shows our quarterly fiber service address delivery over the past seven quarters and reflects the build momentum we are experiencing. As Ken highlighted, we had company record address delivery in the third quarter, representing an 82% increase year-over-year, and the momentum continues as we head into the fourth quarter. For the full year, we remain on track to deliver between 250,000 and 300,000 new fiber service addresses. The chart on the right illustrates the continued expansion of our fiber footprint. Over the past three years, we have increased the number of fiber service addresses across our markets by approximately 77%, demonstrating steady and meaningful progress toward our long-term fiber goals.

Chris Bothfeld
VP of Financial Analysis and Strategic Planning at TDS

On slide 10, residential fiber net adds were approximately 17,000 in the third quarter, a 50% increase compared to prior year, driven by continued footprint expansion and ongoing copper-to-fiber conversions. Residential fiber connections have grown 81% over the past three years, outpacing our fiber footprint growth. We expect continued fiber connection growth as we expand our footprint. Turning to slide 11, the chart on the left depicts our residential revenue per connection, which increased 2% year-over-year. This growth reflects annual price increases, partially offset by promotional activity. The chart on the right highlights total residential revenue between copper, cable, and fiber. You will see that fiber revenue is up 14% or $12 million versus prior year, which largely offsets the legacy revenue stream pressures we are experiencing.

Chris Bothfeld
VP of Financial Analysis and Strategic Planning at TDS

In cable, revenues are down 7% versus the third quarter of 2025, reflecting continued market pressures, partially offset by a one-time benefit in the quarter. Adjusting for this benefit, cable revenues would have been down 10%. As Ken highlighted, we are increasing investment and sales capacity in our cable markets and are starting to see progress. Overall, total residential revenue declined $3 million compared to prior year. Excluding the impact of divestitures, residential revenues were relatively flat. As Ken noted, we are deploying fiber across our footprint at a record pace to help mitigate legacy headwinds. Slide 12 summarizes our financial performance. Total operating revenues declined 3% in the quarter, or 1% excluding the impact of divestitures. The remaining decline reflects continued legacy revenue stream pressures, partially offset by fiber revenue growth.

Chris Bothfeld
VP of Financial Analysis and Strategic Planning at TDS

Cash expenses increased 4% as cost to support our growing expansion markets, along with inflationary cost increases, including fuel and people-related costs, were not fully offset by our transformation and ongoing cost containment initiatives. Also note that the third quarter cash expenses include $4.2 million of strategic alternatives costs, primarily related to workforce reductions. This compares to $3.5 million incurred in the prior year. We continue to drive efficiencies in the organization to help offset inflationary increases and costs associated with expanding service and growing our footprint. The decline in adjusted EBITDA for the quarter reflects these cost pressures, as well as top-line headwinds from divestitures and legacy revenue streams. Capital expenditures totaled $251 million in the quarter, reflecting higher address delivery, a higher mix of buried versus aerial builds, and a record level of addresses under construction across our fiber markets that will be delivered in future quarters.

Chris Bothfeld
VP of Financial Analysis and Strategic Planning at TDS

We are seeing higher costs to complete our E-ACAM builds in certain areas, as we need to use more costly construction techniques and more miles of fiber required. Despite these higher costs, we believe the economics of our E-ACAM program remain attractive. Slide 13 reflects our guidance for 2026, which has been updated. We are projecting total telecom revenues of $990 million-$1.01 billion, down from our prior guidance. We were anticipating fiber revenues to more than offset legacy declines during the second half of 2026, but continue to work toward that inflection point. We also moved our adjusted EBITDA guidance range downward to $290 million to $310 million, as the lower revenue expectations fall to the bottom line, and we are experiencing higher costs to support our extended hours to service customers in areas where we are building fiber.

Chris Bothfeld
VP of Financial Analysis and Strategic Planning at TDS

From a capital perspective, we have increased our guidance by $100 million from our prior midpoint to approximately $750 million. As Vicki and Ken both highlighted, delivery of fiber addresses at a record pace requires that we have a large funnel of addresses and the flexibility to pivot when delays arise from permitting and other factors. Nearly half of this increased CapEx is driven by a pull-forward of future spend, which we expect will contribute to address delivery in 2027. The remaining increase is largely due to higher E-ACAM build costs and a pivot to construct more of the buried addresses in our expansion markets, as I mentioned earlier. Before turning over the call, I want to thank the entire TDS team for their continued execution and focus. Their efforts across fiber delivery, customer growth, and operational transformation are critical to the progress we're making toward achieving our long-term objectives.

Chris Bothfeld
VP of Financial Analysis and Strategic Planning at TDS

I'll now turn the call over to Anthony.

Anthony Carlson
Anthony Carlson
President and CEO at Array Digital Infrastructure

Thanks, Chris, and good morning. The third quarter represented another meaningful step in executing our strategy to optimize tower operations. Our year-over-year results are now becoming increasingly comparable, as Q3 2025 marked both the launch of Array as a standalone tower company and the commencement of the T-Mobile MLA. As highlighted on slide 18, when adjusting for DISH and excluding T-Mobile interim site revenue, cash site rental revenue increased 20% year-over-year. After also fully excluding the impact of the T-Mobile MLA, cash site rental revenue grew 7% year-over-year, demonstrating the strong organic growth of our tower portfolio. As T-Mobile continues its network integration activities, we are continuing to see the expected reduction in interim site revenue as those sites are terminated. Importantly, our leasing pipeline and sustained application activity continue to support healthy revenue growth, which is expected to partially offset the impact of declining interim site revenue over time.

Anthony Carlson
Anthony Carlson
President and CEO at Array Digital Infrastructure

Turning to slide 19, we continue to gain greater visibility into the expected population of tenant-less towers following T-Mobile's integration process. Based on the information available today, we've refined our estimate to 1,200-1,600 tenant-less towers. As a reminder, however, T-Mobile has until January 2028 to designate its committed sites under the new MLA. Given the likelihood that a meaningful number of towers will remain without tenants in the near term, we remain intensely focused on our ground lease optimization initiatives. While this is a multi-year effort, we have made progress in reducing lease costs on towers that are likely to become tenant-less and identifying the most uneconomic sites for decommissioning. More broadly, we are accelerating our ground lease buyout program, which expands tower-level margins while further reducing portfolio risk.

Anthony Carlson
Anthony Carlson
President and CEO at Array Digital Infrastructure

Moving to slide 20, there has been minimal change since last quarter, with the notable exception that we received regulatory approval for the sale of certain 600 MHz and 700 MHz spectrum licenses. Subject to FCC finality and customary closing conditions, we expect the transaction to close by year-end. We also continue to pursue opportunities to monetize our remaining spectrum holdings, primarily our C-band spectrum. This spectrum is deployment-ready today, and we remain confident in its value as a highly attractive 5G asset. The absence of near-term build-out requirements allows us to remain disciplined and avoid being forced sellers. Slide 21 summarizes the results of our partnership or non-controlling investment interests.

Anthony Carlson
Anthony Carlson
President and CEO at Array Digital Infrastructure

As a reminder, 2025 investment income and distributions were impacted by several one-time factors, including the impact of the Iowa partnership selling their wireless operations to T-Mobile and distributions received from Verizon related to their transactions with Vertical Bridge. Equity income for the nine months ending September 30th was $116 million. Turning to slide 23, Array delivered a strong quarter with year-over-year revenue growth driven primarily by the T-Mobile MLA, complemented by solid growth from the rest of our customer base. As discussed in prior quarters, the year-over-year increase in cost of operations reflects the reclassification of certain property tax and insurance expenses from SG&A into cost of operations. This change also contributed to the year-over-year reduction in SG&A expense. SG&A continued to include costs associated with winding down the legacy wireless operations, although those expenses declined further during the quarter.

Anthony Carlson
Anthony Carlson
President and CEO at Array Digital Infrastructure

In addition, SG&A remained elevated due to strategic alternatives-related costs incurred in evaluating the proposal received from TDS to acquire the remaining publicly held shares of Array. Consistent with their classification, these costs are excluded from adjusted OIBDA. With the withdrawal of the TDS proposal, we do not expect these costs to recur in the fourth quarter. On slide 24, our outlook remains unchanged. We expect total operating revenue of $205 million-$215 million, adjusted OIBDA of $60 million-$75 million, and adjusted EBITDA of $220 million-$235 million. Capital expenditures are expected to be $25 million-$35 million, driven by an expected increase in ground lease buyout activity during the remainder of the year. In closing, Array continues to make meaningful progress on its journey to becoming a leading tower company.

Anthony Carlson
Anthony Carlson
President and CEO at Array Digital Infrastructure

I want to personally thank our team for their dedication, execution, and contributions throughout the year. We remain firmly focused on completing the T-Mobile integration, expanding our customer relationships, and optimizing our ground lease portfolio. The momentum across the business is clear, and I am excited about the opportunities ahead and the progress we will continue to achieve together. I will now turn the call back to Walter.

Walter Carlson
President and CEO at TDS

Thank you, Anthony. As I noted in my opening remarks, TDS continues to make solid progress advancing our strategic priorities. The momentum we are seeing across the businesses positions us well as we come into the last two months of 2026 and look forward to 2027. I'd like to again thank all of the outstanding associates across the TDS enterprise for their continued dedication and hard work in serving our customers and supporting the advancement of our business. Operator, please now open the line for questions.

Operator

We will now begin the question-and-answer session. Please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. A reminder that if you would like to ask a question, please raise your hand. If you have dialed into today's call, please press star nine to raise your hand and star six to unmute. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Ric Prentiss with Raymond James. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Ric Prentiss
Ric Prentiss
Analyst at Raymond James

Can you hear me okay?

John Toomey
Treasurer, VP, and Head of Corporate Relations at TDS

Yeah, we can hear you fine, Ric. Good morning.

Walter Carlson
President and CEO at TDS

Good morning.

Ric Prentiss
Ric Prentiss
Analyst at Raymond James

Good morning. Yeah. Hey, thanks for doing the call and taking the questions. I have a couple. I want to start on the TDS Telecom side. As we've looked at, and thanks for the chart showing kind of fiber versus copper versus coax. As we look at that, obviously pressure on the legacy side. You talked a little bit about cable and what you're doing there, trying to get some more coax to fiber, changes in sales stuff. As I look at copper side, it looks like copper, you've had some divestitures, but kind of down $10 million year-over-year on the revenue line in copper markets, but also down $2 million sequentially, 1Q to 2Q to 3Q. What do we think about turning that around?

Ric Prentiss
Ric Prentiss
Analyst at Raymond James

I think you mentioned putting some more ILEC fiber out there, but how should we think about stemming that trend on the copper side, and when do we think, broadly speaking, the business inflects so that you get revenue growth at the total level and EBITDA growth at the total as well as you kind of balance fiber versus legacy?

Ken Dixon
President and CEO at TDS Telecom

Hi, thanks for the question. Yeah, what's beautiful for us this year is the E-ACAM program, and as you saw, the 27,000 addresses that we delivered in the third quarter in our ILEC market. This is core to our strategy, is deploying fiber into those E-ACAM markets and then along the route, picking up those copper-served addresses today in our legacy footprint. So we saw a nice acceleration in the third quarter. We have a funnel, very robust in terms of addresses for our E-ACAM in the fourth quarter. And then, as you see from some of my comments, we've got record crews right now from a construction standpoint, and candidly, the largest amount of addresses in our pipeline here going into the fourth quarter. So that gives us confidence that we're going to continue to be able to attack those copper markets and ultimately deploy fiber.

Chris Bothfeld
VP of Financial Analysis and Strategic Planning at TDS

Ric, to answer your question around total revenue growth, what I would say is that we expected in the second half of this year that our fiber revenue growth would more than offset these legacy declines, but we're still working towards that inflection point. I will say that inflection point is around the corner. It's not years away. Just like Ken said, our strategy is to accelerate our fiber business as much as possible to offset these legacy pressures in the near term.

Ric Prentiss
Ric Prentiss
Analyst at Raymond James

Great. How about as we look down to the EBITDA line? Obviously, you're investing a lot of CapEx. I think Vicki mentioned, somebody mentioned kind of the return on capital hurdle for these projects in the low and mid-teens. How do we think about the EBITDA turning around and becoming growth then?

Chris Bothfeld
VP of Financial Analysis and Strategic Planning at TDS

Yeah, so just to elaborate on that, obviously revenue plays a huge role in EBITDA, so we're doing everything we can to get to that inflection point on revenue, and that will drop to the bottom line. We also are on pace to hit our transformation initiatives. We've put a line in the sand that by year-end 2028, we will deliver $100 million in run rate benefits. We're still tracking towards that goal. So the increase in accelerated fiber revenue growth as well as those transformation efforts will help also turn around EBITDA in the future.

Ric Prentiss
Ric Prentiss
Analyst at Raymond James

Great. The second one's for Anthony. Obviously, seems like we get daily, weekly buzz from what SpaceX is doing, what DISH is doing. Can you let us know how many DISH sites you had and what's happening as far as any discussions on the tower side with satellite companies in general, and how soon might we see something from satellite companies that impact you guys?

Anthony Carlson
Anthony Carlson
President and CEO at Array Digital Infrastructure

In terms of your first question, we had about 330 DISH sites. Of course, you know, they're no longer paying for those. They're in the process of abandoning that equipment. But that's about how many we had. We're not going to comment on any sort of particular satellite company, but what we will say is that we have great assets that are attractive to anybody who is interested in building out a terrestrial network. Indeed, the largest carriers in the U.S. and many other players as well are already tenants of ours, and we look forward to working with anybody who's interested in building out terrestrial networks.

Ric Prentiss
Ric Prentiss
Analyst at Raymond James

As you think strategically, if satellites do do something terrestrially, how do you think of the impact on your tower business? Neutral, positive, very positive? What's kind of the array of outcomes that you kind of look at what might happen in this still fog of war, unclear exactly what's happening?

Anthony Carlson
Anthony Carlson
President and CEO at Array Digital Infrastructure

Well, obviously, there's sort of big strategic questions about, hey, what's the Assuming potential other major entrants become terrestrial network players, what's the end number of sort of terrestrial networks? But if that number goes up, I don't think there's any alternative but it being broadly bullish for our business, because we're in the business of leasing space on towers. If the number of major carriers goes from three to four or more, those carriers will need to use our space, and that means more revenue for us. So, I think that's broadly bullish. I don't think a scenario where satellite companies are able to replace terrestrial networks entirely with satellite-based services is very likely. I think that there are many laws of physics reasons for that that have been discussed by many other people in many other forums, but we broadly believe that.

Anthony Carlson
Anthony Carlson
President and CEO at Array Digital Infrastructure

We think that direct-to-device communication is broadly complementary to the terrestrial service that is provided by terrestrial mobile networks, and we think it's great for consumers. So, we're broadly bullish on the opportunities from additional mobile carriers.

Ric Prentiss
Ric Prentiss
Analyst at Raymond James

Great. Thanks, guys.

Operator

A reminder that if you would like to ask a question, please raise your hand. Your next question comes from the line of Michael Rollins with Citi. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Michael Rollins
Michael Rollins
Analyst at Citi

Thanks, and good morning.

John Toomey
Treasurer, VP, and Head of Corporate Relations at TDS

Good morning, Michael.

Michael Rollins
Michael Rollins
Analyst at Citi

Good morning. I am curious if you could just share more perspective on the competitive landscape from the combination of fixed wireless, satellite. You have the potential for some overbuilds or incumbent builds, depending on which markets we are talking about for you guys, and just how you are thinking about the long-term penetration or share opportunity and where broadband ARPUs go over time if competition stays where it is or picks up a bit. Thanks very much.

Ken Dixon
President and CEO at TDS Telecom

Hey, good morning. Where TDS has deployed fiber, we are not seeing a material impact from satellite. I would say if you look at areas that we have deployed fiber, I think I will just point to some of the things that we have seen most recently in the third quarter. We actually saw our fiber churn improve on a year-over-year basis by 20 basis points, and that was an improvement in what I would say during mover season, where we usually see elevated churn. The next thing, as we have put addresses out into the market with those marketable addresses, we had our biggest fiber net add in our company history at approximately 17,000. The demand for our services is fantastic.

Ken Dixon
President and CEO at TDS Telecom

We believe strongly that fiber is the best solution for broadband, and if we look at the usage, the utilization on our network in terms of consumption of data, it grew double digits again on a year-over-year basis. We see that growth continuing, and we see with more and more artificial intelligence usage in the home that fiber is absolutely the best solution. We feel very confident in our fiber strategy. In terms of ARPU, as I said, we absolutely believe that we are going to continue to see the usage on our network, and we believe a fiber strategy with the ability to go to multi-gig PON, whether it is up to eight on XGS or 25 gig PON, that over time you will see ARPUs increase based on the need for more and more data.

Ken Dixon
President and CEO at TDS Telecom

We believe our fiber strategy is right on, and that is one of the reasons why we just spoke about converting 30,000 of our cable addresses over that we feel are a great opportunity at very low cost to move to fiber, and why we are so bullish on the E-ACAM program to accelerate that and to, candidly, take as much copper out of our network in the next couple years as possible.

Chris Bothfeld
VP of Financial Analysis and Strategic Planning at TDS

Mike, with respect to penetration rates, in our expansion markets, we're still consistently hitting on average 25% penetration by month 12. A lot of that has to do with our robust pre-sales model and kind of pent-up demand, because typically we have pre-sales penetration of 20% that leads into that nice month 12 penetration, and then we're still targeting steady state penetration rates of 40%, and in our more mature markets, we are hitting those targets. Then with respect to E-ACAM, we've shared that our targeted penetration rates are 65%-75%. We're still in the early stages of deploying in these E-ACAM markets, but we do have some areas that have passed that 12-month mark, and they're trending really nicely to those long-term targets.

Michael Rollins
Michael Rollins
Analyst at Citi

Thank you.

Operator

Once again, if you would like to ask a question, please raise your hand. Your next question comes from the line of Sergey Dluzhevskiy with GAMCO Investors. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Sergey Dluzhevskiy
Sergey Dluzhevskiy
Analyst at GAMCO Investors

Good morning. Can you guys hear me?

John Toomey
Treasurer, VP, and Head of Corporate Relations at TDS

Yes.

John Toomey
Treasurer, VP, and Head of Corporate Relations at TDS

Yeah, good morning.

Sergey Dluzhevskiy
Sergey Dluzhevskiy
Analyst at GAMCO Investors

Great. My first question is for Walter. You mentioned that a potential combination between TDS and Array still has benefits in your opinion, but given the fact that the two parties couldn't agree on consideration and price, what set of circumstances could lead TDS to potentially try again? Maybe if Array monetizes its remaining spectrum and becomes a smaller company, does that make things easier for a potential combination? Any thoughts on that front would be appreciated.

Walter Carlson
President and CEO at TDS

Sergey, thank you for the question. We don't comment on specific future plans with respect to topics of that type. I would offer the following. We do think that the benefits from a combination of Array with TDS would be meaningful, and that's why we proceeded with the offer that we made. When we can't reach agreement on terms and price, we don't proceed, and we don't predict the future. We can't predict the future with great clarity, so there may be circumstances where it makes sense to do this again. There are so many things that can happen in life, it would be hard to predict exactly what they might be. But I want to underscore what I said in my remarks. We are focused intently now on building both businesses and being successful in both businesses. That is our priority.

Walter Carlson
President and CEO at TDS

We've taken a large amount of costs out of the duplication that we had previously experienced from running Array and TDS separately. So, we're running the Array business very efficiently. We expect to continue that and have taken many of the costs out. But there are good reasons to do it in the future, and if that makes sense, we will consider it at that time.

Sergey Dluzhevskiy
Sergey Dluzhevskiy
Analyst at GAMCO Investors

Got it. Great. My second question is for Ken. Obviously, you have been able to accelerate your build engine significantly. Any concerns about building too fast? Also, what is the right balance between the build pace and following it up with appropriate go-to-market strategy and selling activities so that you are efficiently converting new passings into customers? Maybe if you can talk about what metrics you typically look at when you analyze this type of conversion.

Ken Dixon
President and CEO at TDS Telecom

Okay. In terms of the Let me start with the E-ACAM. Obviously, this is a phenomenal program, and we are the largest recipient of the E-ACAM funding, and with that has milestones in terms of locations that need to be delivered at the end of 2025. I am sorry, at the end of 2026. We feel confident in terms of our ability to achieve those. We also have those same, what I would say, milestones with another 25% of those locations for next year. Ultimately, that is what is guiding us in terms of our E-ACAM build. One of the things that is important to us is that it comes at the perfect time. We have a copper revenue challenge, and we have a solution with the E-ACAM program and that funding, and its ability to now bring fiber into those communities.

Ken Dixon
President and CEO at TDS Telecom

That is what is really setting the pace for our E-ACAM builds. The second, from an expansion perspective, is that our strategy is we want to be first to fiber. As I had announced earlier this year with the additional edge-out opportunities of 300,000 addresses, it is very important for us now that we have established a flag in an expansion market, we have launched our brand, our sales capacity, our customer experience, it is now logical for us to look around that footprint where we can edge out to and have that ability to be first to fiber. When we are first to fiber, as Chris mentioned, we see very, very strong penetration rates. That is really the strategy that we have talked about all year long.

Ken Dixon
President and CEO at TDS Telecom

From a sales perspective, I think Chris had mentioned earlier, as soon as we see those addresses go into our expansion markets. We have been very successful as it relates to that pre-sale penetration and hitting that one-year penetration milestone. The second, I have said this all year long, as we have opened up additional new open for sale, we have added a lot of vendor capacity in these geographic areas to go door-to-door. We think that is important, and that channel has really developed for us this year, and we have seen significant improvement in terms of their sales. The other thing that we have spent a ton of time on this year is trying to drive more and more of our overall distribution to our lowest cost of acquisition channel, which is .com, and I think we are just scratching the surface of what we can accomplish there as we go into 2027.

Ken Dixon
President and CEO at TDS Telecom

And then the last thing is, we're constantly looking at our single-family unit penetration, and we're also looking at our multi-dwelling unit penetration. Brought on some fantastic new leadership focused on MDU in the third quarter, and we're already starting to see the benefits of that. So, definitely seeing what I'd say improved overall sales capacity as we go into fourth quarter and into 2027.

Sergey Dluzhevskiy
Sergey Dluzhevskiy
Analyst at GAMCO Investors

Got it.

Sergey Dluzhevskiy
Sergey Dluzhevskiy
Analyst at GAMCO Investors

Great. My last question is for Anthony. In early September, obviously TDS and Array said in their press release that they intend to increase their efforts to pursue monetization of remaining wireless spectrum assets. Could you provide maybe a bit more color on that front? I guess, what is the level of interest in C-band right now, and how has SpaceX's potential push to become a terrestrial wireless competitor impacting your discussions with potential buyers?

Anthony Carlson
Anthony Carlson
President and CEO at Array Digital Infrastructure

Thanks for the question, Sergey. We don't have any further specific update on our monetization efforts at this time, but I think it would be appropriate to reiterate that we think this is a very attractive asset, the C-band. It's available now, there's an existing ecosystem, its band position creates a lot of opportunity with the upcoming auction. We continue to think it's a very attractive asset for a wide range of potential buyers.

Sergey Dluzhevskiy
Sergey Dluzhevskiy
Analyst at GAMCO Investors

Got it. Thank you.

Operator

A final reminder that if you would like to ask a question, please raise your hand. If you have dialed into today's call, please press star nine to raise your hand and star six to unmute. We will pause for just a moment to allow for any additional questions. There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back to John Toomey for closing remarks.

John Toomey
Treasurer, VP, and Head of Corporate Relations at TDS

Thanks again for joining us this morning. As always, please reach out if you have any additional questions, and I hope everyone has a great weekend. Thank you.

Operator

This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.

Executives
    • Anthony Carlson
      Anthony Carlson
      President and CEO
Analysts
    • John Toomey
      Treasurer, VP, and Head of Corporate Relations at TDS
    • Walter Carlson
      President and CEO at TDS
    • Vicki Villacrez
      EVP and CFO at TDS
    • Ken Dixon
      President and CEO at TDS Telecom
    • Chris Bothfeld
      VP of Financial Analysis and Strategic Planning at TDS
    • Ric Prentiss
      Analyst at Raymond James
    • Michael Rollins
      Analyst at Citi
    • Sergey Dluzhevskiy
      Analyst at GAMCO Investors
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